AHC: Make the U.S. Civil War as close to WWII as possible

[GeneralishJing07]

Inspired by @Admiral Bloonbeard's thread in "After 1900" about making The Troubles similar to the Syrian Civil War.

I know people like to joke about how the TL-191 series turns out to just be "20th Century Europe in North America," but Admiral's AHC inspired me to suddenly come up with this idea. So, your challenge is to try and find a way to make the U.S. Civil War as similar to WWII as possible. I think the potential might be there, when you remember that it was a good deal more than just "the Union and the Confederacy." There were the latter four Confederate states who had initially declared neutrality, the five border states with dual governments in Kentucky and Missouri and pro-Confederates in all of them, East Tennessee's attempt to pull a West Virginia, the Indian Territory (including the Cherokee Strip/Cimeron Territory), the split in Arizona Territory between Arizona and New Mexico, the other Territories, the Free State of Jones, Alabama's Winston County, Nickajack, Tennessee's Scott County, divided loyalties in Georgia, and the possibility of foreign intervention.

So, with whatever PoD you can think of, try to make the U.S. Civil War resemble World War II as much as you possibly can, with the added caveat that the Union must still defeat the Confederacy.

 

[GeneralishJing07]

Decided to bump this.

Bump.

 

[Thisisnotausername]

I think the potential might be there

I mean... where? The strategy and tactics aren't going to be the same since the ACW takes place eighty years earlier, the Confederacy didn't have expansionist ambitions comparable to Germany's or Japan's... they're very different conflicts. I guess you could cast the Confederacy as the Nazis, the Union as the WAllies, Britain as the US and Mexico as the USSR, but that just raises more questions--what stops the Confederacy from conquering the rest of the Union after it takes *France, *Benelux, and *Scandinavia, given that there's no *Channel? Why would the Confederacy turn around and try to conquer Mexico when it hasn't even properly secured its own independence? As different as the Troubles and the Syrian Civil War are, you can at least draw broad parallels like them both being civil conflicts in which sectarianism plays a role. It would help if you could outline what parallels you see between the ACW and WWII, because otherwise the prompt is kind of just "make this thing be a lot more like this other, unrelated thing."

 

[GeneralishJing07]

It would help if you could outline what parallels you see between the ACW and WWII

I did not say anything like this, I only said that the potential might be there that the challenge proposed here could be fulfilled to its fullest extent.

Mexico as the USSR

Considering France invaded Mexico to try to install a new Empire, wouldn't that make Mexico a puppet state, in that case?

 

[Thisisnotausername]

I only said that the potential might be there that the challenge proposed here could be fulfilled to its fullest extent.

But you need to explain that potential. You list a bunch of potential players in your OP--how do those match up to the ones in WWII? Where and when would the corresponding events take place? Who would be invaded in *Operation Barbarossa, what beaches would be the Normandy to TTL's D-Day? Obviously you don't have it all figured out or you'd be giving us a timeline or something instead of an AHC, but you need to give us something to work with.

Considering France invaded Mexico to try to install a new Empire, wouldn't that make Mexico a puppet state, in that case?

If you have a better idea for someone to play the USSR to the Confederates' Germany/Axis, feel free to share.